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Anyone else experiencing severe APP LAG & slow loading/refresh with S2?

K
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Ever since we took the plunge for S2 (including upgrading/purchasing 6 new Sonos unit for S2 compatibility) it’s been a real mess (system stability and WiFi issues)! 

The iOS version of the S2 app is very slow to load, lags almost always, and has a terrible screen refresh rate compared to ANY iOS app we have in the household.   Now 20-40 seconds might not seem like long for an iPhone/Pad app to load/refresh, but if you’re trying to get some quick control over the volume or switching songs this is a STUPID amount of time! 

 

S1 was almost instant across all platforms and apps.  While I realize Apple can take some blame for issues with iOS apps, why is S2 slow on PC and Amazon Fire (Android) devices as well?  

I’m guessing I’m not the only one, but Sonos sure seem slow to address this no matter how many times I’ve reported it to support. 

Anyone else think this degrades the Sonos experience beyond the obvious annoyances (especially compared to the hundred or so other apps we use with NO lagging)? 

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Best answer by Airgetlam 2 January 2021, 00:23

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114 replies

K
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Thanks Bruce for some good potential problem solving approaches.

However, I’ve been there done all of that and more - plus I’m working with top-tier engineers within Sonos.  They have admitted that there is indeed Application lag issues with S2 but not reported directly often so while they are aware it’s tied to the S2 application (all platforms/app versions), there are not enough data points (customer complaints/diagnostics submitted) to allow for a deep dive into what’s causing it.   Some blame may be placed on iOS 14.x.

To be clear I’m not asking about song/music/streaming lags to speakers, I’m asking about using the S2 app on your phones/pads/tablets/PCs.  When people OPEN their Sonos S2 app does it take 10-40 seconds to load/refresh?  Is it laggy when changing sources, volume levels? Do the graphics take time to load after the app has started?  

Again, this ONLY happened once S2 was download and installed on various platforms and Sonos is aware and have determined it’s NOT my system. 

We love our 17+ Sonos whole house audio system, but there are ongoing issues that cause a lot of annoyances and this is just one of them.

 

 

E
Userlevel 1

Similar issues here- system worked perfectly but now is laggy, and speakers constantly drop off network or disconnect then reconnect.
 

I have two separate homes, with different ISPs, different routers, different TV brands, and one with a hardwired connection. Separate Sonos  accounts. Both have the similar problems, which coincided with upgrading the app and purchasing two new ARCs. Before that, it was a totally different experience- several years with no issues at all. I’ve worked with tech support, reinstalled apps, reinstalled the speakers, but the end result is still a buggy system. 
 

It’s VERY frustrating for those of us who know something about networking to have people on these forums keep blaming the network. I can tell you, it is not my network(s). And even if it was, how can it be that every other product or gadget I have ever purchased did not have these issues (including Sonos prior gen), but Sonos does.... this is a relatively mature company and technology.


The fact that SO MANY people are complaining about the same issues makes it clear that this is a problem… just because your system works doesn’t not prove that the software is fine. There are several other forums with similar complaints. These are speakers, and the core functionality of playing audio content should not be so fickle. 

 

It should not be this complicated or frustrating for people with otherwise functional home networks and hardware to use a Sonos product. Period. Its even worse to degrade the experience after users invest considerable dollars in a closed ecosystem that used to work consistently. 
 

J

The slow loading is tiresome. I’ve gotten fed up with having to tool around and fix Sonos issues. I’m quitting Sonos altogether.

@Anthony George .  This thread is five months old and has unearthed a handful of users experiencing this issue.  There are millions of users out there using the app.  The app is just a remote control and its speed is 99% down to network communications.

So if you choose to dump Sonos rather than sort out what is actually going wrong, that is your loss.

T

This thread should not be marked as answered

M

I have tried the “solutions” offered in the answer and agree with you @Trenty. This should not be marked as answered.

I have 10 unit system and there is no lag when it comes to playing music, but the S2 system is pure *nonsense*.  Very slow to open, and each time I try to add a song it is spinning wheel time for 5-20 seconds before it tells me it is either added to playlist or not available. 

It was working perfectly until i upgraded to the S2 system and ever since it has just not been the same. I have even tried deleting the whole system and setting it up as new, but to no avail. 

I’ll contact the support team next (my own damn fault for not doing it earlier). 

Good luck everyone!

 

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

K
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Sonos is completely mum on this subject (even within the top tier support team).  What are they going to do to fix this or will Sonos continue to be the slowest app on over 10 devices with over 100 combined apps in our household?

S2 was promised to be an improvement not a downgrade.   

N

Seeing similar stuff. Changing from one album to another is also slow. The music might start playing but refreshing of the visuals is slow. 
 

The original app was snappy - even on an old iPhone 6S. This one is laggy. No changes to my network and other stuff. Just update from S1 to S2. 
 

Ironically the S2 demands fast response from sources. Like my NAS that holds our music might take 2-3 seconds to wake up and serve a song to the Sonos system. That’s too long time and the S2 app will report an error and that the song is not available. Try same song 3 s later and it works fine. 
 

 

B

I have the same issues with the S2 upgrade. I only have one Connect. It was only 2 years old and was upgradable. I have am iOS app and a PC app that takes much longer to find the system. The issue for both apps is that album art display is painfully slow, sporadic, or not any art at all. Also, user controls are no longer functional. Play, pause, volume slider are unpredictable, have several seconds lag, or don’t respond at all. I have tried resetting router, restarting Connect, reinstalling apps. This does not solve the problem.

 

This was a smooth, flawless system before. I believe that what I need to try is to revert back to S1. Has anybody done this? Thanks.

M

Yes, I too am experiencing very slow loading/refresh of the S2 app v 12.2.6 on iOS.

Seems as the Sonos hardware products advance, the software and service side of the house wanes.

S

I am also experiencing many issues with the new app. Ever since S2 launched, the app is incredibly slow to load (25 sec in some cases) and the “my sonos playlist” is iffy. Most times it doesn’t appear at all, once in a while it appears and I can begin to choose from my playlists. I don’t understand why the app is so terrible now, all I know is this wasn’t happening at all last year. Others come over to use my system and they like the songs I have on my sonos playlists, and the playlist never loads. That’s actually how I first noticed something was wrong when my brother and dad pointed this out to me. I panicked thinking my sonos playlists were deleted, but eventually they appeared. Incredibly iffy as to when it appears now. Incredibly frustrating! 

N
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Still got this issue. Open the app - start playing playlist - close app - open app later and still showing details of track that was playing when app first opened - controls still work and will change track, stop etc. but artwork does not update. Sometimes tapping around will bring the app back to where it should be other times closing the app may make  it springinto life and sometimes even closing the app and opening it will still leave you at the first track you played.

busy trying to edit the queue
M

Same problem. App takes ages to load. 
 

I am using a Velop mesh network and can video conference reliably throughout my home. But Sonos app struggles as do some speakers. Pressing play/pause can take 10 seconds to have an effect. Ditto volume controls. Not far off wanting to switch to something else. 

C
Userlevel 1

I am also experiencing this issue and have been unable to resolve it.
 

My network (Amplifi by Ubiquity) performs excellently in all other respects but I have done a full factory reset on all routers, mesh points and Sonos speakers but noticed no improvement. Airplay 2 picks up the speakers instantly but the Sonos app is often very slow. 
 

I too have tried all the steps in the FAQ with no success. 

Airgetlam

As a throw away comment, I do have to wonder if perhaps BT pushed out some sort of update to their routers that might be contributing to this. 

I’m a US user, and not seeing this altered behavior either. 

Bruce
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

In fairness to BT, they do have a large market share so not u surprisingly will be the subject of a fair number of issues.  Not sure alternative providers are any better or worse. 

Can you just put these iffy BT devices in Bridge mode and use real router? This is what I do in the US with my XFinity-supplied modem.

Author of the leading 3rd party Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
I
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Finally I’ve found the solution to the laggy controller in my case.  Out of my four households, I found two (S2) were functioning with no search/ app control lag.

The other two households (S1 and S2) were both experiencing the same issue of severe controller lag, sometimes not even returning search results.

I’ve submitted diagnostics from the two affected households and it was discovered that each household had “phantom” players (not visible in the app but picked up by the diagnostic) belonging to the other laggy household.  There was therefore some confusion over the network of speakers. I had upgraded some speakers and given a couple away but moved a Play 1 between houses.  Seems the factory reset may not have been effective and caused a bridge between the two households.

Finally resolved in one of the households (not yet visited the other) by totally factory resetting everything.

(That in itself was a nightmare since in the time since I originally set the system up I’d changed the router from BTHub6 to BT Superhub2, just by changing the wired connection from the Boost to the hub with no resetting required.  It wasn't apparent then since effectively I just “plugged and played” a ready configured system, that starting from scratch with Superhub2 would be so problematic.  Unable to get any speakers to be found other than eventually the Boost, but even hardwiring other players to that wouldn't connect.  Numerous repeated factory resets to no avail. Sonos help on the phone for longtime with suggestions but still no success.  Apparently there was an issue with original Superhub2 software in 2021 but this was fixed.  Mine is running latest version.  Fortunately I had the predecessor BTHub6 and setting up Boost and Sonosnet using that was relatively straightforward (with few connection problems which needed hardwiring / factory resetting (again) before finally up and running.  Then switched Boost and connected system to Superhub2 ethernet and it continues to work fine.

J

My Sonos system became unreliable lately. Speakers drop, lose their pairing. And S2 is awful. Slow to load, sometimes not showing devices. Every time the screen saver starts on my AppleTV I know that I’m in for an annoying few minutes of waiting for the app to load, waiting for devices to finally appear . . . It’s painful. And yes, I’ve rebooted things, reset speakers, etc. These issues are new. Go back to May and everything was great.
 

It’s definitely the app. I just paired my Arc with a Play5. The lag was incredible. 
 

Also, I don’t want to hear from the troll who says this isn’t an issue because the thread isn’t packed with people complaining. This is a real issue.

Airgetlam

Pretty sure John B didn’t write the app, as he isn’t a Sonos employee.

Bruce
B
Badge +1

I’m experiencing the same thing as kassey22000

I dont have any issues streaming music nor operating the app from a PC.  My issue is just from the iPhone S2 app.  (Whatever OS is current on the iPhone as of 01/2021 - i know it just upgraded).
My issue appears limited to the iPhone app - and only within the last few months.  I have deleted the app and reloaded on the phone 3 times now - the latest just this morning and the issue remains.
It typically takes about a full minute+ for the app to load and sometimes it never loads at all.
No issue at all from multiple PC apps on the same network.  I may look into the diagnostics that Airgetiam recommended since reinstalling the app has had no effect.

 

I
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

Submitted diagnostic 90385481

Airgetlam

Now you just need to call Sonos support, and give them that diagnostic number. 

Bruce
K
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Thanks Bruce,

Really this question is directed AT THE SONOS COMMUNITY - not support as you can probably tell from my postings. 

I’m asking if ANY other Sonos S2 users have experienced the Sonos applications reacting/launching/refreshing slowly compared to other iOS/Android apps and S1.

 

I do agree that it makes it tough when Sonos’ support has their hands tied with communicating broadly to the community. 

 

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Device discovery is entirely the same whether it is S1 or S2. Your router is by far the most probable cause, please tell us what kind it is (and whether you are using WiFi [likely] or SonosNet [less likely].

Device discovery is:

SSDP broadcast (3 seconds per UPnP spec)

SSDP multicast (3 seconds concurrent with broadcast)

mDNS search (concurrent)

When a device is found (on the correct Household) then it is scanned for services, and the interesting services are subscribed to. Some UPnP calls are also made to each device.

That is all local network device-to-device calls, and as we have seen too many times, some routers suck at this.

None of this has changed between S1 and S2.

If using a PC or a Mac then there are some human-readable logs generated which might give a clue. On all devices you can always generate a Diagnostic for Sonos support to take a look at.

Author of the leading 3rd party Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

That’s absolutely fascinating. And counter to the way I understood the software to work. Thanks for the followup.

The S2 app these days caches the details of all speakers it has seen (so it can show the little spanner/wrench icon when they are “missing”). The app obviously cannot “see” other networks, but it sounds like this caching code is broken somewhere and caused the OPs problem by spending too much time trying to “find” these missing devices. Which makes no actual sense, if they didn’t respond to the SSDP call at startup then it should give up IMHO.

Factory resetting everything is an overkill solution, a reinstall or reset of the app should have fixed it much more quickly.

This cache is not required for a functioning system.

Author of the leading 3rd party Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
J

Even the PC app takes an age to sort itself out and load. Slow updating on Android, used to be a really quick to load but obviously doing too much at startup. 

Except that mine still only takes 2 seconds to load, and this thread still has only a few posts after nearly three months.

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